Patience Google Developers... Patience

December 20, 2007

What’s that? Could it be a chink in the armor of the all-powerful Google? More likely it’s just a sign that they need to spend a few more hours fully cooking their Android mobile phone development platform.

What am I talking about?

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, reporter Scott Morrison wrote of “headaches and frustration” for developers attempting to write programs for Android.

In the article, developer Adam MacBeth told Morrison that after weeks of attempting to successfully write programs for Google’s Android, he “found the developers’ tool kit full of bugs.”

“Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn’t work. It’s clearly not ready for prime time,” MacBeth told the WSJ.

In early November, Googleannounced the Open Handset Alliance, a broad spectrum of leading technology and wireless companies (see member list) and the development of Android, which is being billed as the “first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.”

Google’s Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms, said at the time “It’s important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo — one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you’ll see the first benefits.”

Well, if the early returns are to be believed, patience is a concept the developer community needs to embrace in a big way.

For their part, Google told the WSJ that the SDK is really just an “‘early look’ designed specifically to get developers started as soon as possible and to elicit their feedback.”

Bugs are an integral part of early versions of any software release. Working out the bugs and being responsive to the developer community — that’s the important thing.

And to be fair, Quang Nguyen, self-described Android Advocate, writing on Google’s Android Developers Blog offered the following last week:

It’s been just over a month since we gave developers the first early peek at the Android SDK. We’ve been hard at work since then on some nifty new stuff we think you’ll really like. We hope to show that to you soon, but in the meantime, we wanted to fix some of the important issues you’ve raised.

Me, I think Google is addressing this. I can’t imagine a scenario where they would not allocate the proper resources to ensure this not only flies, but soars.